I have been so lax about answering questions – I’m very sorry to all those that asked, but now I’m going to buckle down and get to work on responding to all of them.

brat_sheba wants to know “What are the top 3 “To Do’s” on your bucket list?”

I don’t really have a bucket list, in terms of thinking about things I want to do before I die, that when confrronted with immanent death I would drop everything else to do. The stuff I want to do I pretty much want to do no matter what. And I feel lucky in that I have few unrealized ambitions. Whether that’s due to actually achieving things or simply setting the bar low I can’t say. But I do have some goals that I’m working towards currently so here’s three I can think of now:

1.Being debt free. For most of my adult life I have accumulated and suffered under debt. There’s a myriad of reasons for it, but I’m now working actively to pay back all of my outstanding debts. It’s a painful process, but the joyful feeling every time I pay one off is so remarkable, that I can’t wait to experience the sense of not owing anyone anything.

2. Travel to Africa. Most specifically Senegal. No one in my family has any records of what part of Africa they were from originally, but I do have a powerful wish to see the Western part, and Senegal seems like the most hospitable these days. Also ever person I’ve ever met from there is astonishingly beautiful.

3. There are two books I’d like write: a novel, and a book on creativity and method for artists. Books are magical for me and I’ve started novels any number of times, but have always run aground at some point. I’ve tried using the NaNoMo method, but haven’t quite been able to get into the rythm enough to see a book through to completion. The “artists practice” book would basicly be a compilation of my teaching methods and lectures, so maybe the way to go about doing that would be to tape some of my classes and start working from transcriptions.

This was a great question, Sheba. Thanks for asking it.

I swear I will answer them all! So if you want to ask, go here and leave one in private.